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Accumulations

A month after joining O Globo with considerable fanfare, [former Veja magazine columnist] Lauro Jardim suffered the hardest blow of his career this Sunday.

But only after some delay, it goes without saying.

In an unprecedented front page correction, O Globo — as though it were some Scandinavian daily — said it was wrong to have reported that [the son of ex-President Lula da Silva] was named in the state’s evidence provided by [Car Wash corruption informant and suspect] Fernando Baiano.

This was Lauro’s first column for O Globo, and he warned that it cause quite a stir. As it did, but not exactly as he had planned. In the brief space allotted to him, O Globo columnist Jorge Bastos Moreno, a good-hearted journalist who believes in the good intentions of media corporations, had hailed Lauro’s first column as “a triumph.” Moreno may wish to review his view of the matter now.

This was an historic correction in many ways, not the least of which is the damage to Lauro’s reputation. It proves that Lula was right in his recent decision to sue journalists who publish barbaric untruths about him. It is likely that O Globo editors meant the erratum as a warning to Lauro and other journalists: take care or you may end up on the front page, demoralized. But it is also likely that the Marinho family reacted to the intensity of Lula response in the courts